Oklahoma Approved Another Electric Bill Rate Hike

Question: If the forced push to LED lighting has been done in the name of lowering electricity usage in Oklahoma and across the country, why do electric bills keep going up?

Answer: Your Oklahoma Corporation Commission keeps voting to allow it.

While the news of the last OG&E price hike has been mostly forgotten, PSO was just granted permission to raise their fees again. It'll be the second PSO rate hike in eight months, equalling nearly $20 in new additional fees per customer in less than a year.

Why this new rate hike from PSO? 

They've acquired a 23-year-old power plant in Jenks, and petitioned the OCC to recoup some of their investment through tacked-on fees they feel every PSO customer should shoulder instead of pulling resources from their $61million direct profit in Oklahoma last year, or the $19.7billion parent company AEP earned last year.

Year over year, Oklahomans' electric usage goes down, but the monthly bill keeps going up. I asked ChatGPT to explain why that is. Here's what it came up with.

While electric companies operate as monopolies, they are regulated by utility commissions. In Oklahoma, that's our Corporation Commission.

When the OCC determines that an investment or upgrade is in the public's best interest, they allow the for-profit companies to take a little extra revenue to help pay for it. The generalization is that it benefits the public, so the public should pay for it.

It's like when Walmart needs to upgrade freezers, so the Oklahoma government puts a special tax in place to help cover the cost, but it's only affecting those who eat food.

Return on investment. 

It all goes back to the stock market, but under different terms since it's a public utility. Instead of ROI, it's ROE - Regulated Return on Equity. If the company doesn't maintain ROE and an upward trending stock ticker, there's a chance it could go out of business.

As electricity is such a core common utility to everyday life across Oklahoma, especially during summer months, the OCC won't let that happen. It's not like the lights would suddenly just go out; there's a regulatory legal process to it.

It's a bailout. 

As defined, even AI recognizes it as a windfall bailout. We, the consumers, take on all of the risk in having to pay for upgrades and new acquisitions while the shareholders reap all of the rewards. It's not like our bills get smaller once the work is done.

As ChatGPT details it:

Rate hikes to fund corporate expansion amount to a transfer of wealth from the public to private investors.

It really makes you wonder why the Oklahoma Corporation Commission is always so willing to allow rate hikes. We literally have this same conversation in small groups once or twice a year, so I asked the big question.

Do Oklahoma's Corporation Commission members receive kickbacks? 

It's a very fair question, and since OCC is a politically elected commission, and that's generally how politics works, why not ask?

Of course, the answer was a hodge-podge about how kickbacks and bribes are illegal, but it goes on to detail how common it is for the utility regulators in America, when they opt to return to the private sector, to end up on advisory boards with the utility companies they once regulated.

Oklahoma is very familiar with the Good 'Ol Boy Network.

Is that what's happening in Oklahoma? 

Eh, it's hard to determine and probably slander and libelous to say.

The deeper I dig, as a fellow electric-bill-paying Oklahoman, when I look at our elected OCC members, I get the feeling it's more or less just good old-fashioned disconnect from the common man.

You commissioners.

• Kim David
• Brian Bingman
• Todd Hiett

These are the people who decide whether the public picks up the tab for billion-dollar conglomerates.

They're probably not evil people, just more out-of-touch empty political power-suits. Though the Wikipedia entry on at least one of them will raise your eyebrows, making you wonder how he manages to keep his position at all.